Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

.New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

and Viewers Like You.

THIS TIME, ON COLORES!

WINNER OF TWO JUNIOR FILM PRIZE NEW MEXICO AWARDS, DIN� FILMMAKER MEGAN JAMES, SHARES HER THOUGHTS ON MAKING THE AWARD-WINNING SHORT FILM "DEPRIVED."

STAY TUNED TO WATCH "DEPRIVED" AFTER THE INTERVIEW.

AFTER DISCOVERING HER PASSION FOR SCREENWRITING, JACKIE SHELTON IS TAKING ON A WHOLE NEW CHALLENGE AS A FILM DIRECTOR.

THE PULL CLUB STUDIO IS A PRINTMAKING AND DESIGN STUDIO WHERE ARTISTIC INSPIRATION BLOOMS THROUGH THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP.

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

FAMILY IS EVERYTHING >>Faith Perez: Why was it important for you to tell this story "Deprived"?

>>Megan James: This year has been a little tough for me.

Just constantly, there's so much bad news.

We've had the most mass shootings ever recorded this year than ever before.

And just that alone, I was like, I need to speak out about this.

And I wonder if anyone else is feeling some type of negative effects from the media and that they might need a break.

>>Megan James: My main character is depriving himself of a lot of things because he's constantly consuming this media and he's isolating himself from his family.

He's just in full like work mode.

He's just away from the thing that truly matters.

>> Jacob's Sister #1: I just wanted to know how you're doing.

Like, are you okay?

>>Megan James: You can also look at it as like, he's actually depriving himself from sleep as well.

He's up late at night just working and then just watching all this news and yeah, that's why it's called deprived.

>>Faith Perez: How do you personally relate to that struggle?

>>Megan James: Um, well, ever since I was in fifth grade, I've struggled with anxiety.

I had my first panic attack when I was in fifth grade, which is really a young age, and that's not good.

It's, it's so real and it, it sucks really.

But the thing that can get you through it is your family and getting help.

>>Jacob: I really miss the simplicity and the innocence of life, but this world is just so broken and ugly and all I want right now is just to go home.

I wanna go home.

>>Megan James: In the beginning when he's looking at the bad news, he like shuts his laptop, but at the end he doesn't because he is still gonna go back to it.

And he realizes that he needs more of that.

Still <laugh>.

Yeah I, I love my family.

This is basically just like a love letter to them showing that they mean so much to me.

<laugh> A lot of my family right now, we're all growing up and we're all doing our own things and just coming home, that alone is just that feeling...it's so important just to have the feeling of home and I wanted that in the story.

>>Faith Perez: What do you hope others will take away from your film?

>>Megan James: Really that if you're going through, uh, a tough time, that that's totally fine.

Everyone, everyone goes through their things, but just to get help and recognize that the problem is there and to not ignore it and to go to your family, even if you don't have a family, you also can find, your chosen family.

Just having that feeling of family and home, going to that when things are rough, that's really what the message is in this film.

<laugh> [newscasts on computer]: 75% of Arctic ice has disappeared in the last quarter century...

There's been speculation that Vladimir Putin might resort to using a nuclear weapon to reassert dominance... We will watch carefully.

We will be vigilant...

I am here to say our house is on fire.

We have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not... And we will continue to send a strong message that we believe that sending military aid to Russia at this time when they are using their weapons to bombard cities.

Kill civilians.

Atrocities... [many news anchors voices] [On TV]: 1,575.

I'll go 1,300 bucks.

1,550.

>>Jacob's Relative: Uh, just calling to check on you.

Long time since we heard anything from you.

Give me a call back.

Thanks.

>> Jacob's Sister #1: I just wanted to know how you're doing, like, are you okay?

>> Jacob's Sister #2: This is your sister.

Are you busy?

I just ask because we haven't heard from you in a while.

[newscasts on computer]: The US has now had more mass shootings.... [many news anchors voices] >>Jacob: Hey, I know I haven't been around and I haven't called.

It may look like I'm just cutting you all off.

I'm really sorry for that.

I didn't mean to do that... but I really need help.

It's getting bad and I'm at such a low point...

I tried, like, I really tried to distract myself and it just made everything worse and it made me see the ugliness of literally everything.

I miss how everything used to be.

I really miss the simplicity and the innocence of life.

But this world is just so broken and ugly and all I want right now is just to go home.

I wanna go home.

[Music] A DIFFERENT DIRECTION My short film is called "Lost in Memories," and it's about an older couple, who are reminiscing about their lifetime love affair.

So it's a romance for them.

But then we see through the eyes of their adult children that they've only been together a few years and they both actually have dementia.

And so the romance is kind of bittersweet.

This is the first film I've ever made.

I got interested in script writing in 2017, my daughter was going through some things and I was having a hard time understanding what she was going through.

And so I wrote a screenplay to address it and really, really enjoyed that process.

And so did nothing with that screenplay 'cause she asked me not to, but then I started writing movies and I realized that writing short movies is really fun and you can actually make short movies.

Obviously a feature length film takes a lot more money than I have.

So yeah, so I decided to make this one, I've been in professional communications for my entire career.

What I was doing before, is I was telling other people's true stories.

My background is in journalism.

And so this is the same thing, except for I get to make up the stories.

Once I started telling people that I was writing screenplays, everybody said, "You have to meet Emily Skyle."

And Emily Skyle, who's the executive director of Cordillera International Film Festival, and also movie maker took me under her wing and came in as producer and then taught me how to direct.

- So it's definitely a different world to try to break into.

Making the transition from writing into actually directing or producing a project.

When I began working with her as a writer for screenplays, it was really amazing, she's collaborative.

She takes notes and fights for what she wants to keep in the script, understands what she needs to release in the script.

And eventually we came up with "Lost in Memories" or she came up with "Lost in Memories" and I thought it had legs.

And I thought it would be the perfect time for her to step from writing up to directing and watching her words come to life and helping being part of that process.

- Yeah, that works.

- Because of the nature of my job, I learn about things at work that I'm like, oh, that'd be a cool screenplay.

It's fiction, so I get to make up the stories, but we still have to be accurate.

Like in this movie it's living with Alzheimer's, not suffering from Alzheimer's.

- In the movie at the beginning, the father and the mother are looking at photos and reminiscing and the mother asks the son, you know, look at this photo of you and your dad.

And you think it's the man who she's sitting next to.

And he's very indignantly lets her know that he loves his dad and that's not his dad.

And that's where you kind of realize it all is not as it seems.

- This is when Dad taught me how to fish.

- Yes he did, you two were inseparable that summer.

- These were some of my favorite memories of Dad.

- The overall message is that if somebody you love, if their reality is skewed, that you have to lean in and go along with what they think, as long as nobody's getting hurt and as long as everybody's safe, because there's no point in fighting with them.

And obviously that sounds really logical, unless you're actually in it, and you're dealing with the fact that your mother does not remember maybe who you are.

- This was such a fun show, wasn't it, love?

- The costumes were amazing.

I didn't, some of the actors looked like animals.

- What was your favorite?

- I think the giraffes - When it comes to arcs and messaging within a story, it's really important to focus on what your fundamental message is.

And for a film like dementia, which is what "Lost in Memories" covers, what are you trying to get across by the time someone is done, if someone's giving you their time, what point do you want to make?

And that's for a message-driven film.

When it comes to an arc, that's a particular journey that a character may take throughout the film.

When you look at "Lost in Memories," one of the best examples of a character arc would be when the main character, played beautifully by Aaron Foster, is when his character comes to terms with the fact that although his mother has forgotten his father existed, that his father does still exist in his heart.

And maybe the best thing to do is just acquiesce and let her have her current joy and not fight against it.

And when Aaron makes that decision, it's a really powerful 15 to 30 second moment.

And that's where you get to see the power of an actor and you just watch that amazing transformation take place.

And then he walks over and sits down.

So his journey is that realization and it's a picture perfect textbook example of an arc.

- Talkin' bout Nashville?

- Yep, did I ever tell you about the time I almost had to sing Folsom Prison Blues?

- Yeah, yeah, Dad, you did.

- I think one of the things that was really motivating to get involved with the project "Lost In Memories," outside of just getting to work with Jackie, was the powerful message behind the film.

And I am super excited to see the impact that it has, and the ability it will have to shine a light on a topic that might be difficult to start a conversation about, but might motivate a lot of conversations and thought.

- I am in my 50s, and decided to try a completely new thing, which has been incredibly empowering.

And it's really kind of awesome finding out all the things you don't know how to do, and realizing how many things there are in the world to learn how to do.

THE ART OF FRIENDSHIP "Hey.." I think we draw our inspiration from our surroundings.

A lot of our things are humorous but also, we really love nature.

Its, it comes across in, I think, everything we make.

There's usually animals or plants or something like that involved it, so really, it's based on kind of everything and anything from our lives, history, what we're doing, where we're going.

I'm Linda Winder, Amy Scarpello, Chelsey Hughes, and we're Pull Club.

"I like the way I drew this mouse.

I didn't re-create that in the drawing."

We all each have our own drawing and illustration style.

I like to start by actually, physically drawing usually, and I'll do like a little sketch or something like that.

If it's like gonna end up on a t-shirt or a paper print.

And then I will either scan something or I will just go ahead and start drawing in the computer at that point.

It's always a collaborative effort at some point.

So whether it's Chelsey makes a drawing you know and sends it to us, Linda and I are going to give some input, feedback.

Like if there's going to be text on it, or colors or make it simpler, make it, you know, we kind of like will push each other in that regard, especially when designing for ourselves.

When we're in the studio late in the evening, that's like where like a lot of our ideas come from.

Just kind of like, joking around with each other.

Really, the friendship drives a lot of our ideas.

It'll just be us hanging out or talking about something and then we'll be like, "Yeah, that's funny" (laughter) It's good enough, let's do it.

I think one of the great things about a studio or having some sort of collective is they will push me to do things that I wouldn't have thought to do, or use certain colors or something that I would have never done on my own, but it'll push my illustrations to like a new level a lot of the time.

So I think that we all help each other do that.

The core of printmaking, it's a process.

And one of the things that I enjoy about it is you can't just jump in and do it.

You can try, you're gonna fail and it's not going to work out.

So you have to, every single time, I call it leveling up.

Every time we have a project, every time we try something new or different, you are learning a new skill.

Or even when you run into a challenge, like there's something wrong with the screen, or the colors aren't layering the way we thought.

You work through it and you learn, and that's the only way.

And if you're learning, you learn from someone who's really passionate about it and has done it for a long time.

Even the difference between fabric printing and doing the paper prints.

The screens on the fabric, like a t-shirt screen or any other kind of fabric screen, the mesh is more open, so it allows for more ink to touch the fabric because the fabric will absorb more ink.

It's just like the feel of pulling the squeegee through is a little different than when you press on the paper.

It's like a thing you kind of have to learn to feel and do enough times that you're like, "I know exactly how much pressure to put on this" from doing the run.

So it's really a thing you learn by doing, I'd say.

I think the special thing about print is being able to do multiples, which just lends itself to an entrepreneurial spirit very easily.

I love the limitations of it, of the art form.

I love taking an image.I mean, how can I translate this in the least amount of colors but still get my message and the feeling across?

For us, like the whole thing has been just a huge learning experience and also been a great experience for us to use our various skill sets in different ways and build on those, both individually and collectively.

So I think for anyone who has an interest in doing that, or trying to you know make something bigger out of like their passions, it's not as scary as it seems.

It's a little scary but then it's likenot that bad.

I feel like a lot of pride by being around for like five years.

Feels like pretty substantial, especially when we were starting out and had zero expectations of even being a business.

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"UNTIL NEXT WEEK, THANK YOU FOR WATCHING."

Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

.New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

and Viewers Like You.